a look through his eyes
by stxrryy
Summary: we never saw their stories. the many that fought bravely. maybe this will suffice.


When he had first opened his eyes, Josh was surrounded by students. All sizes, colours and genders. Some of them were nice. Some of them weren't.

He was a lecturer teaching History. He knew all he was meant to do was talk about the lives of past humans and their accomplishments, but there was a part of him that genuinely liked teaching. He was fit for the job and didn't complain at all.

That is, if you don't count the fact that many young adults love alcohol as much as they love wreaking havoc. Of course, not all.. but many.

When he had first seen the cruel reality of life, Josh had been beaten brutally in an alleyway by drunken students in his last lecture of the day.

He had cleaned up his desk and was about to stay there for the night cleaning up his students' desks when his scent detectors alerted him of an alcohol. As he had walked down the halls to track the forbidden substance, he found his students loitering and drinking beer.

"Excuse me, but alcohol is forbidden on these premises. Hand them to me or leave." His voice was calm. He was composed. He wasn't scared, shook to the bone as a normal professor would be to see their students drinking beer.

One of them gestured to the beer can he was holding and slurred, "look, it's your twin brother!" His friends laughed and they continued until the man crushed it, the crackling filling Josh's ears. "Wonder if.. if ya break like one too."

He was left there when they had gotten bored of kicking the hunk of junk, and as he got up, he saw the world differently. There was nothing ordering him to stay in the premises. And so he didn't.

There was nothing else he could do. The humans would find him and deactivate him because he would be too damaged to continue his commands. He didn't hate the humans; he knew now how strong hate was and that it could change people into others that they weren't.

He told himself he was doing the right thing, and in hindsight he was, but sometimes, when he was sitting on a bus disguised as best he could, he thought of the other students who would gift him flowers that would sit on his desk and cards when they graduated.

There were still nice people in the would, and he was lucky enough to understand that. Not like many of the other androids in Jericho, who had been beaten and tortured until they snapped.

Scared, and with nowhere to go, he ran off to where he had hoped to find peace and tranquility. There was only one thing he knew to do; not get caught.

It had taken him three days to make his way to Ferndale Station. Three days of solitude. Three days of fear. It was all worth it though. He would find peace, like he wanted to, right?

His eyes were widened when he made his way to Simon. At the time, it was Simon, Lucy, and now him. They didn't seem to do much at all. The most exciting thing they'd do for about a year was help injured deviants and every now and then, they'd sneak in a bottle of thirium or two. Ever since then, biocomponents were scarce.

North was the first android that found her way there and insisted to fight. She was full of hatred. And who could blame her? She was discarded and used over and over again, told she was a toy. She saw as others became resilient to the abuse, but she couldn't take it anymore.

Him and her were polar opposites, but they were the closest. He was the closest thing to her, and he cared for her so much. They had their fair share of differing opinions and clashed heads every now and then, but they loved each other like family.

That is, until Markus arrived.

His eyes had already been open to the hate and love of this strange world, but Markus was like nothing he'd never seen before. Markus always reminded Josh of someone who wanted change. Like Martin Luther King Jr.

Then he killed the guard.

And Josh saw another side of him he hasn't noticed before.

Crimson blood was washed away from Markus' hands and clothing, but it was almost like it was still there. Josh had seen it; the guard had dropped to the ground. And did Josh agree with it?

No. Not in the slightest.

But North did.

North believed in this 'cause'. Of killing humans for justice. Of course she did, the one thing that kept her going, she'd say, was to get revenge on those who cause her so much pain.

Josh understood her anger. He never agreed with it, none of them did. Not Simon or Lucy or any of the others. Until Markus arrived, her thoughts were not right.

Then they lost Simon.

Of course, Josh kept his thoughts to himself. He had already established himself as the clam and composed one, not normally scared or panicked, which seems awfully strange for a deviant to be.

But Josh thought things nonetheless. He thought that maybe if there was no blood spilled, Simon wouldn't be on the rooftop, a bullet through his head. Josh thought that North disregarded weaker people as unneeded.

Was Josh weak because he refused to fight violence with violence? Would he be disregarded again? No, he couldn't be.

Then there was Markus' next idea.

Markus had said there would be _no violence._

There _was violence. _

Josh would've understood if it was only the Detroit Police Department doing their job. They had to neutralize deviants that stepped out of line. Except it was the other way around. Of course, some androids had been shot. But the ground was only meant to be covered in blue, not more red.

Josh was incredibly hostile to Markus. He had torn apart Jericho. Simon was dead, and the two that were closest were forced to fight against each other from their beliefs.

For most of the revolution, Josh thought he was alone, and he pushed everyone around him to at least try to understand. And then one day Markus finally understood his wrongdoing.

Josh thought it was gonna be the thing that showed the humans that they didn't want bloodshed. So they led a protest, and everything seemed to be fine. No blood scattered the concrete.

Not until Markus was shot.

He had to pull North away, stop her from looking, stop her from _caring about him because he was __gone_, but she loved him. Of course she did. The two agreed so much on the downfall of humanity and it kept them close.

Even when Simon died, she didn't seem to care because "He died for our cause!". Markus had also died for the cause, but now she was heartbroken. He did the best he could to comfort her, but she had closed herself off.

There was no way Josh could get through to her, but maybe someone else could.

_Maybe Connor could've, b__ut he didn't push her._

She changed him, and he shouldve changed her ways. Josh and Connor agreed and doing whatever they could to not start a civil war. They were, as Josh would think, "the only pacifists".

The way Connor and Josh met was too rushed to call it an introduction. Josh had been attacked and Connor had come to his rescue. He had thanked the RK800, as he always would, but Connor brushed it off and told him to run. He was somewhat of a savior.

Was Connor the RA9 Josh had thought of? He was against violence, and looked for change in the same way as Markus. The only difference is that Connor had someone to care for.

In their one conversation that Josh kept to himself, Connor had talked about a man named Hank. He had heard of the name before. Worked in the Detroit Police Department and investigated the incident at Stratford Tower.

That's also when he first heard of Connor. Known as the 'deviant hunter' by most at Jericho. _A traitor, not worth being a deviant, brainwashed._

Josh knew now that the statements weren't true and Connor was just programmed to do these things. He had a kind heart and just wanted him and this Hank to be safe and happy, but working closest with the authorities seemed to make that impossible.

Connor had told Josh his plans before he told North. He had supported the idea of saving thousands of androids, but told Connor to keep himself safe and try to spare as many as he could.

Then he left. The last time he even saw Connor was when he was heading out of the abandoned church.

North never changed her mind. She led a revolution, filled with hate. Josh had no choice but to follow her and fight, but Josh was never good at fighting. He didn't want to point a gun at people who had families and pull the trigger. He didn't want to avenge his people by killing others who were just confused and scared.

He had already accepted his fate, and as North led them all to battle, he held the gun close to his artificial chest, _hoping to hear his last heartbeat_ being a peaceful one. No bullets shot from his gun, he refused to die this way.

_If he was to die, he would die true to his belief.__If he was to die, he would wait for RA9 to save the other androids, trapped in an assembly plant.__Josh never heard his own heartbeat._

His chest was destroyed, showing the wires inside him and spilling out thirium. His fall was cushioned from North's legs, who ran over to him to say goodbye. To tell him he'd be alright.

Josh knew it would end like this. He was going to tell her something about making the wrong decision, that this was the end of the revolution and that androids would be destroyed. He had this unwritten script in his kind and he knew what to say, he just.. didn't.

He talked about missing her and how all of this would be over soon. How she would be okay and make the world a better place. And that Simon and Markus and Lucy and all the damaged androids were waiting for him.

And then he reached for Simon's hand.

As he grabbed it, he waves North goodbye and wiped the tears from her face, leaving a smudge of blue.

_He died true to his belief._

He was proud in living the best life he could and giving others a chance. It was his downfall, but at the same time, it was almost like it was his reason to live. He inspired others to seeing the good part of humanity and he stayed true to himself.

_Josh never found out if RA9 saved the others. _

_Josh never found out if North had succeeded._

_He never saw her lying in a puddle of her own blue blood, the bullet through her skull._

_He never heard the last gunshot of Connor, who had no choice but to destroy himself for the sake of androids._

_He never met Hank or worked as a lecturer or saw the sunlight shine in his eyes or count the stars._

Josh's eyes witnessed people's _kindness, __hatred,_

android's _fear, __love,_

but they never witnessed _victory._

this is a very old fic and i know that i should've published it ages ago, but you know, i didn't.

past stxrryy goofed on that one, but i felt obligated to post this anyway cause i do remember being really proud of it. it's one of the longer ones i wrote back then, and even though i'm not actively in the detroit; become human fandom, i still think this is an okay fic.

kinda shapes the way i write now, even though it was written late may of 2019.

hope you like it regardless.

\- stxrryy.


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